Smile, Halloween Ends, Black Phone... Will horror movies save cinema?

Post-Covid, as the 2023 Oscar season opens, Hollywood seems to be smiling again.

Or more exactly, two smiles.

Those who have brought spectators back to cinemas, which have been deserted since the start of the pandemic.

On the one hand, that of Tom Cruise, carnivorous and devastating, at the controls of

, a new historic US box office record with more than 662 million dollars in revenue.

On the other, an enigmatic and menacing grin, from an unknown actress, on the poster for

, a mini-budget horror film – 17 million dollars – which brought in six times more in less than two months. operation.

This story of a young psychiatrist (played by Sosie Bacon) who sees in the smiles of the people around her the chronicle of her announced death, has just entered the top 15 of the most viewed feature films of the year.

It is well ahead of star films like that of Julia Roberts and George Clooney (

… The feat of arms is all the more admirable since for the past year, tearing spectators aged 45 and over from their sofa and to the cornucopia of offers from streaming and VOD platforms is an almost impossible mission.

Faced with an alarming drop in cinema admissions in the United States (- 34%) and in France (- 30%) in 2022, muscular (super)heroes and slasher

bloodthirsty (violent films) turn out to be the appointed saviors of an industry worried about its own finitude.

Horror movies are part of the backbone of Hollywood, especially in times of crisis

Didier Allouch, Canal+ cinema correspondent in Los Angeles

2022 for cinema?

An

in the literal sense of the word.

Because the success of recently released horror films like

and

, the revival of

with Neve Campbell, or

by Jordan Peele, does not surprise the experts.

The genre is booming.

“In 2017 alone, horror films had generated for the first time in history 900 million euros at the global box office,” recalls Michael Grabowski, professor of communication at Manhattan College in New York.

"They are part of the backbone of Hollywood, especially in times of crisis," said Didier Allouch, Canal + cinema correspondent in Los Angeles.

“Already during the Great Depression, after the crash of 1929, what worked indoors?

The

and the

of the Universal studios”, recalls the journalist, keen on the genre.

Fear in times of crisis

Today, in another anxiety-provoking context, is the public once again more fond of dread in the cinema?

"We are programmed to play at scaring ourselves, and the collective experience of a film seen in theaters, as a group, reinforces social cohesion as much as it reassures us individually", confirms Michael Grabowski, specialist in neuroscience applied to cinema. .

The strong visual and sound stimuli, our feeling of the anguish of the characters generate in us the reaction, instinctive, "fight or flight".

A survival instinct.

And a chain reaction that is accompanied by a surge of adrenaline, endorphins and dopamine.

Faced with this intoxicating chemical cocktail, it is not surprising that the first fans of horror films are teenagers,

those thrilling sequences designed to make you jump or scream, like an amusement park roller coaster.

“They rush there in bands or in pairs, in a tradition that continues from generation to generation”, observes Didier Allouch.

In this clear increase in box office receipts, we therefore find young people, but also ex-teens who went to see the first

by John Carpenter, in 1978, and who return to see the last part,

, again with genre star Jamie Lee Curtis.

The terrifying sagas become multigenerational.

Not to mention that the platforms have also started to maintain a nostalgia for the masters of anguish: Apple TV+ and Netflix are adapting Stephen King (

,

), the Duffer brothers are exploding audience records on Netflix with their

, fed with references to horror hits from the 1980s and 1990s.

Horror early on gave pride of place to women as strong heroines

Damien Golla, Distribution Director at Wild Bunch

Hollywood knows that this unquenchable thirst for hemoglobin pays off.

Because of the dozens of horror films produced each year, two or three small productions will blow up all the prediction counters.

Released this year,

and

are among these surprise hits.

"A mini budget of $2.3 million like

(Disney+), produced for a platform and released in theaters in America, brought in more than 45!" Enthused Didier Allouch.

A vein not to be missed.

Especially since the horror genre, essentially on the fringe, adapts very well to new societal trends that directors like to seize.

Sometimes as pioneers.

Read also "American Horror Stories", "Servant", "Chapelwaite": 14 horror series ideal for Halloween

The survivor, a cult role

“Horror gave pride of place to women very early on as strong heroines, not just supporting actors or victims,” notes Damien Golla, director of distribution at Wild Bunch, the distribution company that launched

. Julia Ducournau's first feature film, in 2016, about a cannibalistic veterinary student.

Sigourney Weaver in

, Jamie Lee Curtis in

, Neve Campbell in

: all are codenamed like

the survivor who defies evil and overcomes it, and with whom the public identifies.

It is therefore perhaps no coincidence either that certain horror films attract female spectators in greater numbers: "They formed 60% of the public of

(2014)", notes Damien Golla.

On video,

Grave

, the trailer

An award-winning genre

The genre has already won its critical acclaim, as evidenced by the Oscar for best adapted screenplay and the Golden Globe for best film for

, in 1974, or

, the only one in the history of cinema to have received the ultimate distinction of the best film, in 1992. More recently,

by Jordan Peele, won the statuette of the best original screenplay, conferring on the director the status of spearhead of a new type of dread.

"At the crossroads of horror and thriller, these films present real points of view of authors", analyzes Damien Golla, who is preparing the release in France, in 2023, of the survival film

, by Guillaume Nicloux.

Whatever the form of these films –

(violent),

(blood), psychological terror, malevolent entities to fight (killer, zombies, paranormal demons, vampires) – let's be reassured: our thirst for fear on the big screen is not about to be quenched.

Nor the desire of directors to reinvent the codes to better stage our worst nightmares.

"The world is changing, different fears are taking hold of our cultures, and from there, new ideas will always spring up," assured Eli Roth, considered the pope of the torture film (

) to the

in 2013. We can therefore rejoice, like Julia Ducournau, Palme d'or at Cannes in 2021 for her horrific and feminist

, that the cinema has finally "let the monsters in".